Law should require shots for child care

Saturday

Apr 5, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 5, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Mumps and measles are caused by viral infections and spread easily and quickly. Both also have easily recognizable symptoms; mumps causes severely swollen salivary glands, and measles has a dramatic rash. But both have a side effect that cannot be seen: deafness.

Mumps and measles are caused by viral infections and spread easily and quickly. Both also have easily recognizable symptoms; mumps causes severely swollen salivary glands, and measles has a dramatic rash. But both have a side effect that cannot be seen: deafness.

Speech, language and hearing problems affect one of every 10 people. While the impact is profound at any age, communication skills are critical to a young child’s development.

Vaccines for young children and boosters as we grow older are important for overall health and for the prevention of communication problems due to hearing loss. The recent mumps outbreak reinforces the need to stay current with vaccines. But Ohio has an immunization-policy issue that is of serious concern.

Ohio is the only state that does not have a law requiring vaccinations for children who attend child care, even though vaccinations are mandated for children entering kindergarten. While most child-care settings do a good job requiring vaccinations, there is no law in Ohio that compels immunization for these settings.

This is worrisome because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that approximately 30 percent of reported measles cases have one or more complications. Complications of measles are more common among children younger than 5 years old and adults 20 years of age and older.

Otitis media, or middle-ear infection, was reported in 7 percent of cases and occurs almost exclusively in children.

Mumps can lead to a number of long-term complications, notably permanent deafness in one or both ears. This occurs in about 1 out of every 20,000 cases and can come on suddenly. (Most people who experience permanent hearing loss have it only in one ear.) In addition, approximately 4 in 100 kids with mumps will have temporary hearing loss.

I am calling on Ohio’s legislative and administrative leaders to pass a law to require vaccinations in child-care settings and help to eliminate the unnecessary risk to any child’s hearing. With the current mumps outbreak in central Ohio, the time to take action is now.